ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--A recently erected granite monument to victims of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami at Okawa Elementary School here drew visitors here two and a half years after the disaster.

TOMIOKA, Fukushima Prefecture--Evacuees are trickling back to see the famed “cherry blossoms of Yonomori” that had attracted more than 100,000 annual sightseers before the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.